National School IPM Working Group Joint Steering and Advisory Committee Meeting Agenda
Monday, May 6th at 11:30am Central Time
Participants: Herb Bolton, Mark Bishop, Zach Bruns, Thomas Cook, Marcia Duke, Carrie Foss, Sherry
Glick, Fudd Graham, Dawn Gouge, Tom Green, Katie Howard, Janet Hurley, Sue Ratcliffe, Gregg Smith,
Mariel Snyder, Tim Stock, Jim VanKirk, Carol Westinghouse and Deb Young,
1. US EPA National Center of Expertise (Thomas Cook)
Thomas Cook, Lead, Center of Expertise for School IPM
214-665-9731 and email: Cook.Tom@epa.gov
Fountain Place
1445 Ross Ave.
Dallas, TX 75202-2750
The US EPA Center of Expertise is close to completing its final staffing requirements. Thomas Cook
will be the lead for the Center and will be supported by Sherry Glick and Brad Miller. The Center will
be taking an aggressive approach to contact and network with new and existing external partners.
We also want to get all regional US EPA staff on the same page in terms of school IPM. Our Tier 1
activities will begin over the next few months. Thomas is looking forward to reaching out to each
one of you individually regarding your current school IPM efforts and projects. US EPA Office of
Pesticides Program is still in the process creating a national roll-out announcement for the Center.
Question: Sue—does the US EPA plan to release future funding for school IPM projects?
Answer: Thomas—headquarters is in the process of putting out an RFP announcement for future
grant opportunities. That RFP is still in initial stages of planning.
Question: Dawn—at the University of Arizona, we are very familiar with the State and Tribal
Assistance Grants (STAG) system. There is a lack of mechanism for Pesticide Safety Education
Program (http://www.psep.us/) funds. To use the funds most efficiently they could be distributed
to trainers via state lead agencies and tribes. Do you have any more information on this?
Answer: Thomas—I need to follow up with my headquarters counterpart, Cara Finn.
2. Educational component:
Mark Bishop
Vice President of Policy
Healthy Schools Campaign
mark@healthyschoolscampaign.org
http://healthyschoolscampaign.org/
Introduction
The Healthy Schools Campaign (HSC) formed 11 years ago surrounding a school IPM law in Illinois.
Originally, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) stated that they were not going to participate in IPM as
outlined by a newly formed state regulation. In response, a group of education and health
advocates made sure that CPS did not opt out of following the law. From that grassroots project,
team members learned that there was no organization in Illinois to take on healthy school issues.
Thus, HSC was formed with the support of Safer Pest Control Project and Beyond Pesticides.
Currently, 50% of HSC work is national and the other 50% is focused on the Chicago region. Our
organizations topics include food and fitness (asthma, supporting nutrition standards, farm to school
programs, recess initiatives), green cleaning (chemical management, hand washing, IPM, IAQ),
capital programs and investment in school facilities. We believe that green cleaning is not a single
program but a series of steps. IPM is a strong component of that. Many of our partner schools
refuse to talk about green cleaning without talking about IPM.
Right now, HSC has two big national strategies. We are working on incorporating health into
national policies and brainstorming ways to hold educational leaders accountable, such as making
health outcomes part of job requirements. Last year, we created the “Health in Mind” publication
that included recommendations on how to integrate health into school policies, including continuing
education units (CEUs) for professional teachers. We continue to work on ways we change policy to
include language about healthy school environments. In Illinois, we are working with the
Department of Education to implement recommendations slowly. HSC has also made
recommendations to the Surgeon General’s Office about how the federal government can
incorporate health and wellness on federal, state and local levels. We partner with health and
human services to increase health services for children (students) and adults who are eligible for
Medicaid-supported services, especially services offered in schools.
HSC worked with the US EPA to delivery feedback for the environmental health guidelines for
schools, which seemed like repackaging of the Tools for Schools program. The guidelines included
elements on what states can do from a policy and regulatory standpoint, including IPM. In next two
months, HSC would like to sit down with EPA representatives and figure out how to support and roll
out adoption and understanding of the health guidelines to promote better school environments.
At the local level, we host an extensive parent training program to equip Latino families to work
with their schools’ health and wellness programming. We are using federally required wellness
teams to get parents involved in low income communities. CPS has a lack of outdoor play spaces.
HSN is partnering with Chicago based orgs, including the Federal Aviation Authority and the local
waste water management program to reduce heat island effect and increase play spaces for
students in Chicago.
Q & A:
Q: Janet—Do you know anything about the whole child initiative?
A: Mark—Yes, it is supported by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
and we have worked with them in the past. They look at health indicators and do excellent work.
They are early consultants and partners through our work and helped inform our policy initiatives.
We also rely on a researcher named Charles Bosh from Columbia Research College and a study that
was published a few years ago called, “Do Healthier children Learn Better,” which helped us identify
academic and opportunity gaps in the schools.
Q: Janet—when conducting outreach and community training, I am curious about what you are
teaching parents? Does your website have trainings listed?
A: Mark—on our website, there is a parents united for health schools project section. Our effort
seeks to engage Latino families and schools in health and wellness. The outcomes are tremendous.
Our wellness teams are improving and changing competitive food policies in schools and at home.
Parents are taking lessons home and changing the ways they are cooking. We heard a fabulous
story of a mother going into the catering business because of one of our community programs.
Q: Carol—Regarding your teacher training material, has anything been developed in terms of
curriculum for teachers?
A: Mark—we do have training on health and wellness through CPS. We are thinking about how to
distribute this training on a broader level. How to take health and wellness into what schools are
already doing, such as incorporating movement. HSC is also developing a healthy homework
program. There are lots of activities that teachers can do to get students involved in homework and
being active. How teachers can create healthy homework to be sent home, such as playing outside
for 30 minutes and then writing about it.
Carol—New Hampshire partners for healthy schools has curriculum based on a Tools for Schools
type approach.
Q: Dawn— There are a number of groups working on science-based curriculum involved with hands
on-science. Are there opportunities to engage and periodically be involved in developing curriculum
between our school IPM group and HSN?
A: Mark—Yes, we would like to be involved in such a project—whether its review or promoting
curriculum.
Q: Dawn—What school metrics are associated with health and wellness? We struggle with impacts,
which often take years to measure. I am part of a US EPA pesticide dialogue committee that has
developed metrics for health-related school environments. Any metrics that you develop, we would
be interested in reviewing. One of the US EPA Tier 1 strategies is to develop some measureable
outcomes for school IPM, including health and wellness measures.
A: Mark—It is challenging dealing with health records. For example, Colorado is doing great
research on health metrics. In Illinois, we are looking at school health policies supportive of students
health. If student health information is made public, it can empower teachers or parents—that is
how we originally pulled together stakeholders in Illinois.
We developed a list of 19 different health policies and combined them into one matrix. We are
working with state to put in school state report card. Our hope is to have a single metric rating
system for specific policies. We are working through that process now and our goal is to roll formal
plans in 2014 for a health policy index. IPM is on that index list, which is still in draft form. All our
policies have to be developed based on existing state laws or national best policies.
Q: Sue—do you have any involvement with tribal schools or other tribal opportunities?
A: Mark—none, not yet. A big chunk of our work is working with CPS and national US EPA groups.
Sue would like to have a side conversation about further partnerships in Illinois.
3. School IPM District Survey update (Zach & Mariel)
Complete
1. ALASKA
2. ARIZONA
3. CALIFORNIA
4. COLORADO
5. CONNECTICUT
6. HAWAII
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
ILLINOIS
IOWA
KANSAS
LOUISIANA
MAINE
MARYLAND
MINNESOTA
NEVADA
NEW HAMPSHIRE
NEW MEXICO
NEW YORK
NORTH CAROLINA
OREGON
RHODE ISLAND
SOUTH CAROLINA
SOUTH DAKOTA
UTAH
TENNESSEE
VERMONT
WASHINGTON
WEST VIRGINIA
WYOMING
IDAHO
DELAWARE
GEORGIA
VIRGINIA
NORTH DAKOTA
MISSISSIPPI
NEBRASKA
KENTUCKY
ALABAMA
ARKANSAS
MASSACHUSETTS
WISCONSIN
INDIANA
MISSOURI
Close to Complete
5/1, 54 out of 168 = 32%
5/1, 6 out of 19 = 32%
Far from Completion
5/1, 50 out of 180 = 28%
5/1, 26 out of 128 = 20%
5/2, 40 out of 196 = 20%
5/2, 19 out of 150 = 13%
5/2, 53 out of 250 = 21%
5/1, 27 out of 174 = 15%
5/2, 2 out of 133 = 2%
5/2, 32 out of 239 = 13%
5/2, 26 out of 243 = 11%
5/1, 53 + (38) out of 424 = 21%
5/1, 76 out of 454 = 17%
5/2, 105 out of 523= 20%
# Needed to
reach 40%
13
2
22
24
40
41
47
42
50
58
69
79
104
105
OHIO
TEXAS
MONTANA
PENNSYLVANIA
MICHIGAN
OKLAHOMA
NEW JERSEY
5/2, 137 out of 615 = 22%
5/1,207 out of 1,033 = 20%
5/1, 38 out of 414 = 9%
5/1, 39 out of 501 = 7%
5/1, 40 out of 550 = 7.2%
5/2, 26 out of 523 = 5%
5/2, 72 out of 616 = 11%
113
213
127
166
185
184
4. Regulatory journal article (Tom & Janet)—Janet—almost done with the final draft. Thanks to
everyone who helped submit content and review the article. We still have a few last comments
from the National Pest Management Association (NPMA). Marcia Duke is the new NPMA
representative, who will be sending Tom and Janet feedback in the next two weeks. Still waiting on
feedback from Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE) and the Association of
Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials (ASPCRO). Dawn suggests submitting the journal for
publication ASAP, as final publications are taking longer than ever (at least one year).
Marcia Duke—new steering committee representative for NPMA. Maria started her
professional career working for Bob Wharton at Texas A&M and completed her PhD on control
of fruit flies. She then worked for Terminex doing pest control and then transitioned to the
regulatory arena and registered products with SP Products and Sons. She recently joined NPMA
to work on regulatory issues. IPM and school IPM will be on Marcia’s plate going forward.
5. Regional updates (group—as time permits)
North Central Region
- We completed our May 6th conference call this morning. John Gann of Keller Independent
School District spoke on IPM and energy management. To read the minutes, please visit:
http://www.ipminstitute.org/NC_IPMIS_Working_Group/main.htm
Southern region
- Some of you have been contacted by Janet regarding a support letter for a proposal on the IPM
Cost Calculator. Please let Janet know if you have been using that tool and want to help develop
its final phase.
- Janet worked with New Orleans last month. Claudia has had to disqualify some schools from
her project due to lack of compliance. A coalition meeting is scheduled for June and schools in
Louisiana will be invited to New Orleans for a workshop. They will bring their IPM plan and we
can help them write it. Ken McPherson and Marc Lame will be at the training.
- Janet, Mike Merchant, and Blake Bennett toured a school in Irving, Texas that produces enough
energy to sell back to the grid. They have little or no pest complaints in the school due to the
efficient design of the building. To see more about this school campus check out their website
Lady Bird Johnson Middle school is the largest Net Zero school in the U.S.
http://irvingisd.net/education/school/school.php?sectionid=2115
- Fudd continues to work with Faith on the grant project. He is trying to get in touch with PMPs in
Alabama and get schools to start using Pest Presses to train each other.
- Karen Vail working on bed bug grant, which Fudd will be able to use with eXtension.org
- Jerri Caldwell is working with Steven Kells (University of Minnesota) on developing bed bug
resources in 7 different languages.
Western region
- Oregon—Tim had SIPM coordinator training where he trained 35 coordinators from 35 different
school districts. He also attended the Oregon Facility Managers Association annual conference
and arranged two presentations—one on indoor rodents and one on outdoor rodents. EPA IPM
grant—had a change agent practicum and a strategic planning session on April 16-17 in Seattle.
27 people attend the training including members from the Washington Facility Managers
Association, the Oregon Facility Managers Association, Washington Public Health Department,
and the county health department. They discussed how to work together with IAQ to
implement IPM, including walk-throughs and synergizing with existing efforts from the
Washington Department of Agriculture.
- Arizona—Dawn and team got extension grant to provide school managers and PMPs with IPM
training outside of the metro areas. First one was in Prescott, AZ and had mixture of school
managers, PMPs and master gardeners. This event clashed with a school nurses event, which
was the same week. Dawn and team presented at two more training sessions and struggled
with lower attendance rates that urban school districts. Dawn continues to work with Phoenix
metro schools to develop bed bug trainings and prevention plans.
- Alaska and Montana—did not have support to apply for EIPM funds.
- Colorado—Deb and Clyde Wilson gave presentation to Colorado Alliance of Educators.
- Washington—working with King County who is translating extension materials for IPM in
housing. Lucy Li is translating one of the IPM brochures into Mandarin.
NE Region
- Carol attended New England School Nurses Association event last month where she handed out
school business and asthma documents and green cleaning guides. Talked to coordinator for
next year’s conference about an IPM breakout session. Richard Pollack spoke on head lice.
- Working with Lynn B. about BMPs, which will be online soon.
- Carol will have pilot project to test environmental management project.
Next call: Monday, June 3rd at 11:30am CDT